In his first real weekend as an official driver, Franco Morbidelli collected only a twelfth place in qualifying, after a tiring Q2 in which he never managed to undermine the leading positions. However, if his teammate Quartararo appeared decidedly frustrated at the end of the first qualifying of the season, Morbidelli prefers to look at the glass half full taking into account the positive aspects, which are there anyway.
In Lusail, tire degradation is a crucial issue that will certainly influence the course of the race. The choice will be practically obligatory for everyone (soft at the front and an alternative between soft and medium at the rear) and in this context the race will become interesting according to the Yamaha rider. In fact, Morbidelli believes that shooting from the center of the group is not ideal, however it is less worse than one might think.
Yes, because we will have to take into account the collapse of the tires, due to the significant degradation that will occur during the Qatar Grand Prix. Morbidelli has clear ideas and thinks that a 12th position in Lusail is not a drama after all: “The starting position is always important, but if you have to choose a weekend in which to have a bad day in qualifying it would be a weekend like these. The collapse of the tires is too big a problem to allow the riders to do fast laps throughout the race. So if I have to choose a weekend in which to start 12th it would be this “.
“I have no idea why there is so much degradation in Lusail,” says Morbidelli in reference to tire wear, “I just know that the tires collapse. The difference can be big at the end of the race between a driver who has degradation or another who has less or none at all. In this sense it will be an interesting race. I think I’m the slowest of the fastest. I don’t know the position, because anything can happen in the race, especially in these conditions. But this is my situation at the moment. I’m very consistent, but not too fast ”.
Qualifying certainly did not go as expected from the bike that won the world championship last year, but Franco Morbidelli already had a taste of the problems of the M1 last year and encountered the same difficulties in Lusail: “It’s too much early to say if we have a problem in qualifying, but it is certainly a wake-up call. Even in the last races of last season there were some signs ”.
Despite the difficulties of qualifying, the Yamaha rider is optimistic in terms of the race: “I feel pretty good with the pace, I managed to maintain a decent pace. There is still a test to do, so we can improve and try to take that step forward that maybe allows us to gain something. Let’s see if we can do it and then we’ll see what happens in the race. I am confident for the race, even if the starting position is not good. On the other hand, however, the passage is interesting. We need to improve a little more to make it really interesting. We know where to work and we will try to improve ”.
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